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AIBU?

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AIBU to think tickets and popular places are much harder to access now

81 replies

dapplefox · 03/09/2026 14:16

Listening on the radio this morning about the Bayeux Tapestry being shown in London presently but also that it's completely sold out until January with no new tickets available yet. A friend of mind was unable to get tickets to the Frieda Kahlo show at the Tate recently and I've lost count of the number of times I have not been able to get tickets for a concert in recent years.

I remember years ago it used to be fairly easy to get ticket for a ballet, a theatre show (we went to see one in 2006 with a really star studded cast in London and got the tickets easily and it was much cheaper). I could easily get a ticket to see quite a large band like Primal Scream at a time when they were really popular at a really small venue but now similar acts often sell out super quick at much larger venues i.e. one that holds 15k people over 2k.

Is there just that much more people in the UK now? Do people just go to things as a matter of course if they can get a ticket whereas in the past it was more likely to be dedicated fans? It's so expensive I find this crazy although I know it happens as I met some friends at a Cure concert a couple of years ago and I was surprised as I hadn't known they like the Cure, when I said this they said they didn't really know their music but thought it would be a good experience!

Related to this is how social media can mean that some places, cafes, bakeries, bars whatever become massive hotspots due to social media like in LA there is a pink wall which loads of people travel to for instagram photos and they buy a pink Starbucks drink take a photo or reel then they dump their undrunk drink.

On one hand if people can afford it and get a ticket then why not it's a free country but on the other it is so hard to get tickets for stuff these days or to many places because it's always so busy and over subscribed.

Why is it so much harder to access anything now compared to 20 - 30 years ago when its all so much more expensive?

OP posts:
Dogfishy · 03/09/2026 14:55

Pootles34 · 03/09/2026 14:35

I think it's always been this way, tbh. The Tutankhamun exhibition at the british museum in the 70s had enormous queues didn't it?

Yes!!! Absolutely enormous

Autumnallaround · 03/09/2026 14:54

To an extent you're right.

West end tickets were much easier to obtain I think. Now I have to book them via a pre-sale link on the day they are released - particularly if it's a big name starring in the show.

I got Radiohead tickets in the 1990s for £10 queuing at the Manchester Students Union!! No presale links or special album codes.

I also don't remember struggling to see Oasis at Main Road.

nomas · 03/09/2026 14:46

I've just checked the Tate website and it's showing lots of availability for FK, including weekends.

And moving a ~1000 year old tapestry seems like a mad risk to me.

dapplefox · 03/09/2026 14:39

Perhaps, I am not in London although I once lived there perhaps it was just easier up here and has now got harder? Although as I say I got tickets for a new Tom Stoppard play in London 20 years ago with loads of famous actors in it quite easily and now it seems much harder to get tickets for that kind of thing.

OP posts:
Pootles34 · 03/09/2026 14:35

I think it's always been this way, tbh. The Tutankhamun exhibition at the british museum in the 70s had enormous queues didn't it?

Dogfishy · 03/09/2026 14:27

Super popular shoes and events shows have been difficult to get tickets for…. Well for as long as I can remember being in the market to buy tickets! I’m 45

remember oasis knebworth about 30 years ago!!